IF THINGS had worked out differently, Colin Cloud could have been bent over the body of another Glasgow murder victim collecting evidence.

Instead, the former forensic scientist has turned killer.

Well, up to a point.

Thankfully, nobody actually dies. But in the mentalist’s Edinburgh Fringe show there will be a victim, the audience will be complicit and he will get away with it scot-free.

It’s a concept which would vex one of his heroes and inspirations, Sherlock Holmes, which is fitting given the 28-year-old has tapped into the mindset of his arch nemesis, Professor Moriarty, for his latest show.

And he admits he also had a little help from the audiences who came to see his show at last year’s festival, The Forensic Mind Reader.

He said: “The idea started because I was thinking I would love to be able to perform a locked room mystery on stage, I have always been fascinated by them.

“It got me thinking how the perfect murder wouldn’t happen in a locked room but in a room full of people who would be a witness to the fact that the killer was nowhere near the victim and yet they managed to kill them.

“It was also because of last year’s show. People said, ‘Wow, if I could do that, I would find out people’s pin numbers, I would cheat at cards… basically benefit themselves.

“They would use these powers for evil. Well, if you are going to be evil, what is the ultimate evil which, for the right reasons, I could get away with? It’s all a bit Moriarty but I realised I could get away with murder.

“You will see exactly how I do that and watch it. It’s the darkest thing I have done.

“The victim is a member of the audience, and the audience pick the person.

“Two American ladies came on different nights because they thought I was using stooges but by all means, come and see the show as many times as you want.”

Colin's show is on at the Pleasance Courtyard until August 30

Colin, who appeared on Britain’s Got Talent and got Ant and Dec involved in a trick involving the biographies of the judges, is a young man going places.

After the festival, he is heading to London’s West End to join the world’s best-selling touring magic show The Illusionists: Witness the Impossible.

He will also be continuing working on his own show, which is being developed with American broadcaster NBC.

It could all have been so different for the shy boy from Harthill, Lanarkshire, who went to study forensic science at Glasgow University aged just 16 – largely because of his fascination with Sherlock Holmes.

He said: “When I was six we used to walk past the library every day to get to class and I saw a book with a guy wearing a silly hat and smoking a pipe. Of course, it was Sherlock Holmes.

“When I was eight, I picked it up for the first time . The way it was written, I thought he was a real person. When I was 10 and found out he never existed I was really disappointed.

“But by then I was fascinated by this concept of trying to work things out from a small detail and my brain got really into that. That’s why I got interested in science.”

It is also when he got interested in performing.

Colin’s desire to mimic Sherlock’s powers of deduction was overwhelming and ultimately led to performing.

He said: “I remember being in the school canteen and doing something for about four people and somebody else saying, ‘Try it on me’ and suddenly being surrounded by about 80 to 100 people and it wasn’t as bad as I thought.

“In fact, I prefer a larger audience. Bizarrely, the more people the less pressure.”

Performing helped pay his way through university and by the time he finished his course at 20, he was headed for the limelight.

He said: “When I was at university, I was getting booked for events and I was also a speaker for a while about motivation.

“I was youngest on the course and even in third year I thought, ‘Do I really want to pursue this?’ It’s nowhere near as glamorous as TV shows make it look, that’s the reality of it.

“When I was studying, I had started performing at The Stand and doing bits and pieces at theatres. I got to the end of and I had a choice. Do I want to go and work in a lab and be stuck in there all day, every day, or do I want to travel the world on stages meeting amazing people? It was kind of a no-brainer.

“Using my real science abilities for genuine good would be amazing but I look at the flip side and ask if I want to be involved in that quite dark and depressing world or be on stage entertaining people. It’s maybe a bit selfish but I do love what I am doing.”

It would be hard not to. A teaser trailer for his NBC show has gone up which shows him stopping a stranger in New York and telling her information he has no right to know.

It’s slick, professional and hints at the big wide world which awaits him. Colin’s persona is tattooed cool and consummately professional but he admits he is thrilled.

He said: “You wake up in New York and your crew are picking you up to take you to a day’s filming at Grand Central Station and you think, ‘I’m from Harthill.’ It’s amazing.”

The NBC deal came about when he posted videos online and his manager got in touch with a contact at the network.

He said: “Their response was, ‘Holy sh*t, is this real?’ They flew me down to London and said, ‘We will keep you in mind for anything unless you have any ideas of your own.’

“I said I had four and told them the first one. That’s what we’ve been working on ever since.

“I hope as many people as possible get to see it because I am really proud of it. ”

The NBC trailer is titled The Deductionist – The Real Sherlock. The Deductionist is also his title in The Illusionists.

And he’s well aware the current popularity of various incarnations of Sherlock on TV doesn’t do him any harm. He said: “The thing is Sherlock has never gone out of fashion. He’s always been there. It helped me sell out last year and it’s helping again this year but I have to prove to people I can live up to it.”

Somehow, you don’t feel it will be an issue. As far as his audiences are concerned, you just know he is going to kill them.